Minimally-invasive surgical procedures have been developed for many treatments, including placement of medical devices inside a patient or other therapeutic or diagnostic purposes, as a way of reducing trauma to a patient. In such procedures, holes are made and accessed by catheters or similar devices, and treatment devices are passed through the catheters to the site of interest. When the procedure or a part of it is concluded, the access catheter is removed and the hole repaired.
Devices and methods have been described for suturing such holes to close them. However, such devices and methods are commonly very difficult to use in such limited spaces. To avoid sutures, devices have been developed to plug or cover such holes, to allow the hole to heal naturally or incorporate some or all of such plugs into the tissue. Such items have been effective, but may be difficult to place, particularly when both sides of a hole must be closed.
The present disclosure addresses these problems.